Its me again - planning ahead and this question involves what to pack for the dinners. Is there as much of an adherence to formal wear in the Mauretania Restaurant as there seems to be elsewhere? Tuxes for men and long dresses for women every night?
We havent got our boarding pack yet - hence all these q's - but they are best answered by the experienced than in a brochure.

Its also nice to focus on something other than our SMALL (snug) cabin!

When will you go? You must be excited.
Yes , there is as much of an adherence to formal wear in the Mauretania Restaurant as there is everywhere else. On formal nights this means tuxedos for men and long dresses for women. The dress code is requested and followed in all public rooms all night (including bars, lounges etc.) and passengers from all dinning rooms will meet there.
Yet, formal wear is not required every night.
There are also informal and casual nights. The brochures will give you the exact definition but my experience goes as follows:
Informal: Dark suit or jacket with tie for men, cocktail dresses for women
Casual: At least slacks and dress shirts for men, a significant number with light coloured suit or jacket and tie, "sunday dress" for women.

The QE2 is a very formal ship. On a 19 day cruise, we had 2 casual nights, 15 formal nights and 2 informal nights. One visiting celebrity from "Are You Being Served" expressed her disdain for the practice of formal attire, which the British love. When the QE2 could not dock in Southampton (rough seas) and the baggage had been collected, my husband remarked, "I guess tonight is finally casual." You will enjoy the ship and the people aboard. Have a great time, we did>

I am curious, who was the 'celebrity' from 'Are you being Served' on the QE2 & was this the Cradles of Civilisation cruise last Oct arriving in southampton on 21 Oct'04? I am curious as to how bad the weather was that night as I boarded on the 21st late that evening as QE2 could not dock and then we got caught in a terrible force 9/10 gale the next day!

I agree with the previous posts that QE2 is a formal and a large majority of passengers in all grades follow the dress code - especially in the grills where jacket & tie are required each evening even when on a casual night.

Interestingly - and frustratingly - the cruise docs dont specify the number of formal, informal and casual nights beforehand. We are therefore assuming the nights following days at sea will be formal, the nights in port - casual - and the other nights, where we sail at 6pm - will be informal.

We have a 20kg luggage allowance we have to stick to from SA and that makes a 12 day cruise HARD to pack for. Hopefully we wont stick out like sore thumbsa s they say....

I get a little tired of reading on message boards and running into folk on ship complaining about a dress code. hello, you don't like it, stay at home, please.

the line could do better educating the load viv a vis "informal" and "casual". informal does NOT mean toss the tie and casual does NOT mean tank tops are ok for men!

in all public rooms after six pm and throughout the night: neckties on men, which always seem to be the problem........women know how to dress.

on formal nights; tuxedo dress for men, women in long gowns.

on "informal" nights; men in white shirts, suits and necktie, women in cocktail dresses.

on "casual" nights; men in sport coats or blazers, perhapos a colored shirt and necktie. women in "sunday dress"

"am I dressed correctly" asked by a man is always answered yes if he is in a coat and tie after six o'clock.

yes, i know, "what of the first day on or the last night out"...well, you in a sport jacket or blazer and nice tie, trust me, no one will snap their fingers at you and ask "boy, please help me with my luggage."